I have always thought there was a way to get from Kelowna to the Needles Ferry without having to slab it all the way to Vernon and around on the highway.

A nice fellow showed me the way today - which is NOT visibly mapped as a road in TOPO CANADA V4 or the BC Backroads Map (digital version).

The road is big bike friendly, no open stream crossings (bridges all the way), no mud holes - and most of it is active logging routes so lookout for the dust clouds.

Enjoy!

I have created a Garmin Adventure link here: http://adventures.garmin.com/en-US/b...owna-shortcut/ based on an updated ride through the route and added photos in the adventure to show what the road is like along the shortcut. (Note in Garmin Adventure some of the photos cannot be oriented correctly until you actually click on then to enlarge - I have no idea why this is??). If you open this Garmin Adventure in a new tab/page and the track does not show up on the map, RELOAD the page - I think there are still some bugs with Garmin Adventure.